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Calm Restored after Violent Clashes South of Tripoli

A GNA fighter fires a truck-mounted gun during clashes with LNA forces in a suburb of the capital Tripoli. (AFP)
A GNA fighter fires a truck-mounted gun during clashes with LNA forces in a suburb of the capital Tripoli. (AFP)
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Calm Restored after Violent Clashes South of Tripoli

A GNA fighter fires a truck-mounted gun during clashes with LNA forces in a suburb of the capital Tripoli. (AFP)
A GNA fighter fires a truck-mounted gun during clashes with LNA forces in a suburb of the capital Tripoli. (AFP)

Calm was restored at various battlefronts south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after two days of fierce fighting between the Libyan National Army and forces loyal to the Government of National Accord.

The calm was interrupted by occasional intermittent artillery fire, especially by the old airport road.

The LNA said Sunday that it had battled militias in the vicinity of the cement factory in the Sog al-Khmies Emsihel area on the road that connects Tripoli to Tarhuna.

The LNA media center said Chadian mercenaries had fled the fighting. Six others were killed in the clashes.

The entire area is now under the army’s control.

The LNA added that it was close to recapturing the al-Masnaa area from pro-GNA forces.

On Sunday, the military announced that its warplanes had carried out “precise” strikes against militia targets in Tripoli. This led to the destruction of an artillery canon and a tank in the al-Takbali military camp and the destruction of an ammunitions depot in the al-Kremiah area.

The army has made advances on the capital and seized new positions from the militias, it added.

All areas under its control witnessed calm on Monday, said the LNA.

Meanwhile, Tripoli’s Mitiga airport remained closed “until further notice” after it came under rocket fire earlier this month. Several civilians were wounded and a plane and the facility were damaged in the attack.

Separately, United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame met in Tunisia on Sunday with US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker and US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland.

They discussed the current situation and upcoming regional and international events about Libya, said the mission in a tweet.

On Monday, Salame and his Deputy for Political Affairs Stephanie Williams met with UK Charges d'Affaires to Libya Nicholas Hopton and discussed the current situation in the North African country and the upcoming international conference on Libya that is being planned.

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Arab World

Israeli Military Issues Evacuation Warning to Residents of Lebanon’s Tyre

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Qlaileh village, as it seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Qlaileh village, as it seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP)
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Israeli Military Issues Evacuation Warning to Residents of Lebanon’s Tyre

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Qlaileh village, as it seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Qlaileh village, as it seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP)

The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning to the residents of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and its surrounding areas on Sunday ahead of possible strikes as clashes between Israel and Hezbollah continue.

The military said earlier it had ‌intercepted two ‌projectiles that crossed into Israeli ‌territory ⁠from Lebanon, after ⁠sirens sounded in the areas of Yiftah and Ramot Naftali.

Lebanese group Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for the launches.

The Iran-backed group rejected proposals linking a ceasefire to its disarmament, ⁠saying Israel must first halt ‌its attacks ‌and withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon.

Iran ‌has made a ceasefire in Lebanon ‌between its close ally and Israel a condition for any peace deal with the United States.

Hezbollah entered the war ‌on March 2, saying it was retaliating for the killing ⁠of ⁠Iran's Supreme Leader at the start of a conflict that has since killed thousands in Lebanon and displaced more than a million people.

Israel continued to carry out strikes in Lebanon even before March 2, despite a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect in November 2024. It said its attacks are aimed at Hezbollah members and infrastructure.

Arab World

Israel Army Says Intercepted Two Projectiles Fired from Lebanon

Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Marjaoun, Lebanon, June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Marjaoun, Lebanon, June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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Israel Army Says Intercepted Two Projectiles Fired from Lebanon

Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Marjaoun, Lebanon, June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Marjaoun, Lebanon, June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Israel's military said Sunday that it had intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory, despite a new ceasefire agreement announced this week aimed at ending hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in the areas of Yiftah and Ramot Naftali, two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were intercepted," the military reported.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a new US-brokered ceasefire on Wednesday. However, Hezbollah has rejected the agreement.

Arab World

Palestinians Suffer from Lack of Proper Toilets Across Gaza’s Vast Tent Cities

Palestinians walk along the street on a hot day at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 5, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians walk along the street on a hot day at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 5, 2026. (AFP)
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Palestinians Suffer from Lack of Proper Toilets Across Gaza’s Vast Tent Cities

Palestinians walk along the street on a hot day at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 5, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians walk along the street on a hot day at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 5, 2026. (AFP)

In their bare-bones tent in southern Gaza, Mostafa Shaaban built his family’s makeshift toilet behind a curtain in a corner. He dug a shallow pit in the sandy soil, poured a concrete slab around it, fixed a bottomless bucket over the hole, then topped it off with a battered, plastic toilet seat.

It reeks with a foul odor and buzzes with flies and mosquitoes only a few feet from where they sleep and prepare meals. Every week, Shaaban has to dig the sewage sludge out of the pit. But at least it’s more private than the fetid communal latrines used by hundreds of other people in their sprawling tent camp.

“I did not want the kids and my wife to use any public toilet. It is humiliating,” said the 38-year-old Shaaban, who was driven from his home city of Rafah by Israeli forces two years ago and eventually settled in a tent camp in Khan Younis.

“The situation is revolting,” he said of having the toilet inside the tent, “but at least it has more dignity.”

There is not a single proper toilet across the vast tent cities housing most of Gaza’s 1.7 million Palestinians left homeless by the war. Displaced families have largely been left on their own to dig their own latrines, some shared by extended families.

At communal camp toilets, men, women and children wait in long lines then do their business behind a thin cloth or sheet of metal separating them from the crowd of strangers outside. Women fear walking to the communal toilets at night.

The result is a hygienic nightmare as horrible smells drift among the tightly packed tents and pools of sewage collect from leaking cesspits or from people dumping the contents of their latrines. More than 80% of the sewage pumping stations in Gaza have collapsed under Israel’s bombardment and offensives over the past 2 ½ years, rights groups say.

Some aid groups have carried out projects to improve family toilets, but they have been small scale and supplies are limited. It remains far from certain when reconstruction of Gaza will begin.

The US-backed official overseeing the ceasefire in place since October has blamed Hamas for holding up the process by failing to reach an agreement on disarmament. The ceasefire deal calls for the entry of major construction and repair equipment into Gaza even before disarmament, and so far little has entered.

“It’s the most basic right. Making a toilet is more important than food and water, because you see the insects everywhere, the smell covers everyone,” said Shaaban’s wife, Iman Mansour, who is pregnant with their third child. “We want something clean.”

Building a latrine is not cheap. Shaaban said it took him a long time to set up his toilet because he had to buy the pipe for the latrine hole and the concrete to seal around it. The concrete often crumbles, so he has to buy more when he can afford it.

A porcelain toilet seat runs from 1,700 to 2,000 shekels ($500 to $680), out of reach for most families. In any case, a seat in a tent latrine would simply be set over the hole to provide a more comfortable seat, unable to flush. So people improvise, using chairs or buckets with the bottom knocked out. Or they just squat over the hole.

One vendor working out of a tent in Khan Younis makes metal sheets to fit around a latrine hole that at least are easier to clean, selling them for 100 shekels ($34).

In one of the camps around Khan Younis, Khaled Kollab laboriously cleared the sewage drain and pools of untreated wastewater next to his tent. His tent latrine is a simple squat toilet with no seat, which he said was made of ramshackle supplies because he couldn’t afford anything better. His 3-year-old daughter, Sila, stood nearby, her body covered in lesions.

“You go into this toilet and feel humiliation and shame,” Kollab said.